updated 11:15 am EDT, Mon June 28, 2010

Shortages may kill Droid Incredible early

Verizon cast doubt on the future of the Droid Incredible late on Sunday with word that it was steering customers away from the phone. Those who are now facing a one-month delay for the Android device are now being told they can switch the order to a Droid X when it's in stores. The Motorola phone isn't due to ship until July 15 but will still arrive sooner than Incredible orders, which now don't ship until July 26 at best.

While Verizon hasn't canceled the Droid Incredible, the switch in attention could lead HTC's phone to a short existence on the network. It has suffered from shortages of its 3.7-inch AMOLED screen since its launch in May and is seeing its supply reduced so heavily that HTC is switching to LCD to keep producing its current phone range.

The frequency of Android phone updates has increasingly been a problem rather than an advantage for Google, as few phones have had maximum attention for more than a few months before being replaced. It has contributed to larger overall sales but has hurt HTC and Motorola. [viaAndroidGuys]

what about Droid SBiP... dude

ridiculous commentary

"The frequency of Android phone updates has increasingly been a problem rather than an advantage"

The frequent updates are a sign of a vibrant marketplace from varied manufacturers...are there some downsides to this strategy? - of course. They will always look for improvements. But don't get confused... this is Androids advantage - a vibrant release schedule, to keep the fans interested...would it be great if Google could have done this on their own, and cut everyone else out, a-la Apple? Yes. Was that really going to happen? Just ask RIM and Palm how that idea worked out.

The multi-vendor approach was Google's card to play, and its working brilliantly.

Along with Apple, Google is skyrocketing to the top, meanwhile RIM, Palm, Nokia, and Microsoft, have to be worried.